Various types of apparatus for sampling fluids are known. In particular, various types of blood sampling apparatus are known in the art. The following patent documents are believed to represent the state of the art: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,877,465; 4,763,648; 4,920,970; 4,934,015; 4,981,140; 5,002,066 & 5,084,034; European Patent Application 88906129.7 and PCT Published Patent Application WO 93/121821.
Often when blood is drawn from a donor and collected in a blood bag, it is desired to test samples of the blood before use thereof. In general, a plurality of tubing segments, which are sausage-like tubing pieces typically about 10 cm long, are attached to the blood bag. In blood bank laboratory tests, each segment is cut open with scissors and the contents are squeezed into a test tube. This can be a rather messy process.